No killer, this

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Hailed as the PS2's answer to Halo, Killzone has more
expectations to live up to than the number of corpses littering its
levels after a brutal fire fight.

While it's similar to Halo in that it's a first-person shooter,
Killzone favours a much grittier, more realistic style of warfare
than the colourful battles of Halo.

From the moment you pick up your first impressively designed
weapon, it's obvious that Killzone is a feast of eye candy. The PS2
has once again been pushed above and beyond the graphic
capabilities of which gamers thought it capable.

Unfortunately, this has come at the cost of smooth performance,
with regular frame-rate hiccups and stutters. Texture and object
pop-ups mar the otherwise excellent presentation.

Tight controls are crucial for a console shooter, and Killzone's
are usually up to scratch. However, the innovative controls for the
sniper rifle don't allow the player to pull off precise headshots
when they're needed most, which leads to rising frustration.

Killzone stumbles to its bloody kneecaps due to the repetitive
nature of its battles. The majority of the player's time is spent
running from one point to another, taking out hordes of Helghast
warriors along the way. Target variety in shooters is crucial to
keep player interest, but most of the bad guys in Killzone all seem
to be clones of each other.

The behaviour of both friend and foe is sporadic at best. These
troopers have the intelligence of a bag of wheat, although their
continual taunts initially help to mask this.

Thankfully, strong online support for up to 16 players helps to
redeem the game somewhat but Killzone isn't quite the killer title
many expected. It's by no means a total dud, but in the crowded
shooter genre being average just isn't good enough.

Endgame: Halo 2 has nothing to be concerned
about.

Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault

Runs on: PC

Price: $89.95

Classification: M

Rating:* * * ½

Don't dismiss this game outright just because it's yet another
World War II shooter. Instead of the devastated urban terrain of
Europe found in others, the move to the jungles of the Pacific
makes for a very different style of combat.

While the levels are extremely linear, the boundaries are so
well hidden by copious amounts of foliage that it's easy not to
notice. This same foliage also makes fighting more like a tense
game of hide and seek than the run-and-gun action of other
shooters.

Unfortunately the enemy has the uncanny gift of X-ray vision,
allowing them to see you regardless of how well you think you are
hidden by greenery.

The game starts by making extensive use of scripted scenes, with
the raid on Pearl Harbour being an explosion-packed highlight. But
when the battle moves to the Pacific islands the action takes a
very different and less enjoyable turn. The player is thrown into
each similar-looking level and must arrive at the end without being
the unlucky recipient of a bullet or bayonet.

Due to the advanced nature of the artificial intelligence,
battles play out quite differently each time but they all share one
thing in common: death is a frequent and frustrating
occurrence.

Heavy use of the save and load feature is almost as crucial as
the fire button, removing much of the tension that could have
otherwise been built up in the atmospheric environments. The fact
that enemies often teleport into the level right before your eyes
destroys the illusion that you are taking part in a real
battle.

Had it relied more upon the hand-crafted scripted scenes found
at the beginning and end of the game, Pacific Assault could have
been the benchmark for World War II shooters. Unfortunately the
core combat that makes up the majority of the game soon feels more
like chore combat.

Endgame: An innovative take on the wartime
shooter but it is plagued by high difficulty and repetitive
battles.